Star Dust

Scientists have long pondered the possibility of life on Venus. Now conies the theory that the first living organisms on the earth were visitors from Venus. Svante Arrhenius, world famed Scandinavian scientist, used almost every branch of scientific knowledge and gave the world this theory just before he died.

As a bacteriologist, Dr. Arrhenius knew that there were three temperature types of bacteria, those living at low temperatures, the psychrophilic; those living at the temperatures of the human body giving us so much trouble, the mesophilic; those living at high temperatures near geysers, volcanoes etc., the thermophilic.

As a geologist, he knew that the earliest evidences of life on the earth were fossil bacteria living in a torrid climate. But climates change in geologic time and heat loving bacteria die. The quota of bacteria must be periodically filled to keep the population thriving.

As an astronomer, Dr. Arrhenius took up the problem, calculated the average temperature on Venus, found it to be the temperature these bacteria like best. Other conditions being suitable this must be their Fatherland. But how did they come to earth?

As a physicist, Dr. Arrhenius turned to his formulas and calculated that sunbeams were their express trains. Now and again Venus gets directly between the sun and the earth. The sun's rays skim the surface of the planet, picking up any adventurous thermophilic bacteria that are in the way and shooting them to earth. The trip takes only two days and the speed is so great that many would survive the cold interstellar spaces they whiz through on the journey.